Continuation of "observations"

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Geo: 45.4368, 12.3217

Hi all,
Am back and will be finishing up this blog. My last internet connection that I did my observations on wasn't working so well and I wasn't even sure it had sent. So actually all of my observations didn't get put in. So I will finish that and then finish out the trip.

Only one time did a waiter come back to our table and ask how we liked the meal. (have heard they don't want to rush you) He was the owner and actually made the pasta!! yummy!

Most of the tourists go back to their tour boats in the evening, in Venice. So you have St. Marks Plaza fairly empty compared to during the day. Listening to the little orchestras there was a highlight! Some impromptu dancing was fun to watch.

Rome was just coming to life at 9 pm versus you couldn't find a store open in Venice at that time.

Lots of skirts being worn. I wore the two I brought to death!

The old ladies are short!

If you have a good map you're never lost! 😊

Tomatoes 2 euros per kg. in Venice (even the food is brought in on boats!)

Was able to travel on a budget pretty well, can eat a sandwich lunch in Rome for ~2-3 euros and Venice ~ 4-5. (That's sitting on church steps with a bottle of water from the convent vending machine and a sandwich from the corner shop.)

Baby talk works worldwide! All you need to know are Thanks, Where is ___, How much? and you can figure everything else out!

Fun Incidentals:

In Rome- a couple of girls came up to me, "Senora, ___....." in Italian. Thinking I was one! I explained that I'm American..... so were they, fun!

Having an old lady start talking to me in Italian, myself saying, "non, capice" she then got someone to help me as I was looking at something to buy. When the man was done selling me something and I was starting to walk away she came with me talking Italian all the time! All I could say was, Grazie!!

Finally able to use some HS French, had a French group stay in the convent with us and could us the sentence every French student learns the first month. "Je suis American!" 😊 Also my French numbers in the elevator. Finally!

From the "Live and Learn" file:

Was asked if we wanted to join a tour of the Coliseum just outside of it. As I had heard to only take tours from official tour guides that have the green tag. I looked and saw that they had them and agreed to the tour. Great tour, then we were supposed to meet said guide outside the exit in ten minutes to take the Palentine Hill tour and the Forum. We were there with others from the group but a no show on the guide..... so I guess we were scammed! Too bad as I didn't walk around the Coliseum as I would have liked since we were meeting him and needed to be outside the exit.

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